Have things changed for Rickie Fowler?
Well, he’s getting far more commercial opportunities. The latest is a Farmers Insurance spot, timed to coincide with the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines, in which he even has a speaking role.
Granted, it’s one line – two words, actually – alongside veteran character actor/Farmers pitchman J.K. Simmons. But he nails it.
“I’m a golfer, not an actor,” he quipped.
Another indicator? If the guys in your weekend foursome start sporting high-top golf shoes, you’ll know he’s had an influence. Fowler’s been wearing those for two months – as prominently displayed on social media – and he joked that winning with them last week in Abu Dhabi probably removed any jinx they might have possessed.
But those are all secondary matters. Murrieta Valley High’s own is in the golf business first and foremost, and right now business is quite good. Fowler is up to No. 4 in the Official World Golf Rankings after his one-shot victory at Abu Dhabi, in a field that included No. 1 Jordan Spieth and No. 3 Rory McIlroy. He has top-five finishes in his past three starts, has won three tournaments and had eight top-10 finishes over the last nine months, and – with the tutelage of swing guru Butch Harmon – seems to have built further on the accomplishments of 2014, when he was a top-five finisher in each of the four majors.
But being No. 4 doesn’t necessarily make Fowler, 27, part of a Big Four. Not yet.
“A sneaky fourth,” Fowler called himself Wednesday. But there is a dividing line between himself and the current Big Three of Spieth, No. 2 Jason Day and McIlroy, and it is this: Each of those three has won at least one major. McIlroy has four, and Spieth (Masters and U.S. Open) and Day (PGA) won theirs in 2015.
Fowler acknowledges that to make a legitimate claim tobein the Big Four, you’d betterwinone of the Big Four. Until he closes the deal in a major, elite status will have to wait.
“That’s my No. 1 goal this year, to get a major,” he said . “But … if I won a couple of couple of times this year and didn’t win a major, I wouldn’t look at it as an unsuccessful year. If I can continue to make steps forward, that’s ultimately what I want to do: Grow my game and make that better, and the results are going to fall (into place).”
Fowler said he felt he grew as a player in 2015, with three victories (including a European Tour event in Scotland) and five top-five finishes in 21 Tour events. But here’s a more striking breakdown: In his past 18 events, over the past nine months, he has four victories and eight top-five finishes and has missed three cuts. In the 52 events before that, he had no wins, eight Top 5s and missed 10 cuts.
He started 2016 with a fifth-place finish in the Hyundai Tournament of Champions at Kapalua, followed that two weeks later with the Abu Dhabi victory, and now will try to win for the first time in seven visits to Torrey Pines, which he considers “my home tournament.”
His expectations seem realistic, his approach patient and sensible.
“I know I can’t go out and have a perfect year by any means, or have a great week every week,” he said. “The main focus, whenever I’m playing, is just showing up and making sure I have the best I can have that week and getting the most out of it. I may not have played my best golf (last week), but I was able to manage my game well, stay very patient and get the most out of it, and I feel like that’s something I’ve gotten better at over the past few years.”
It hasn’t gone unnoticed.
“He has progressed so much in the last year and a half since he started working with Butch that it’s a night-and-day difference,” Phil Mickelson said. “Before he was with Butch, he had a lot of loose shots. Now he’s one of the best ball strikers I’ve seen on tour. He strikes it so pure and flush.”
Harmon seems to have helped Fowler with the mental part of the game as well, building on what Fowler’s original coach, Barry McDonnell, instilled before his death in 2011.
Patience “was a big thing” with McDonnell, Fowler said, adding that after his passing, “I had a little bit of down time where I wasn’t really getting any better per se, (before) I rethought things, re-established some goals and started working with Butch. I feel like we’ve been trending in the right direction since then.
“I think one of the things with (Butch) is that he’s been there with so many different guys as the top players in the world, taking some to No. 1, and being a past player and winning. It gives him credibility … being there with different guys in those situations, winning majors and being in contention and understanding that feeling that gives you that extra added confidence.”
Will that help Fowler get over the top? Stay tuned.
